The University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Horse Council partnered to fund and implement a 2012 statewide Kentucky Equine Survey. Significant funding from the Kentucky Agriculture Development Fund and matching funding from the industry , as well as UK, made this survey possible. The survey was implemented with use of the collection services of USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service.
Phase 1 of the Kentucky Equine Survey objectives are to obtain estimates of the inventory of all breeds of equine, including horses, ponies, donkeys and mules, as well as estimate of equine-related assets, sales and income, and expenditures. A sampling of 15,000 equine operations, stratified by geographic location and operation size, received questionnaires where by data was collected from June through October 2012. This data covered the period of January 1 - December 31, 2011.
Phase 2 results will be available later in the 1st quarter of 2013.
The following survey information collected was summarized by Dr. Jill Stowe, UK Ag Economist.
There are an estimated 242,400 horses in Kentucky on 35,000 equine operations. The total value of Kentucky’s equine and equine-related assets are a whopping $23.4 billion dollars. Total sales and income for equine operations in 2011 was approximately $1.1 billion dollars. Total equine-related expenditures by equine operations in 2011 were close to $1.2 billion dollars.
Inventory is estimated at about 35,000 equine operations in Kentucky with 1.1 million acres devoted to equine use. Below is a breakdown of these equine operations by primary business type, number acres for equine use, percent of equine related activities on operation for business purposes.
Farm or Ranch - 19,500 Acres - 10% equine related business use
Personal Use - 10,500 Acres - 6% equine related business use
Boarding, Training, Riding Facility - 1,100 Acres - 56% equine related business use
Breeding Operation - 700 Acres - 73% equine related business use
Other - 3,200 Acres - 8% equine related business use
